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The Cisco 550X series Stackable Managed Switches are the next-generation stackable managed Ethernet switches that provide the advanced capabilities and superior performance you need to support a more demanding network environment at an affordable price. These switches incorporate fan and power hardware redundancy, increasing overall network availability. The Cisco 550XG models provide 10 Gigabit Ethernet with both copper and fiber connection options, providing a solid foundation for your current business applications, as well as those you are planning for the future. At the same time, these switches are easy to deploy and manage, without a large IT staff.

Cisco 550X series switches are designed to protect your technology investment as your business grows. Unlike switches that claim to be stackable but have elements that are administered and troubleshot separately, the Cisco 550X series provides true stacking capability, allowing you to configure, manage, and troubleshoot multiple physical switches as a single device and more easily expand your network.A true stack delivers a unified data and control plane, in addition to a management plane, providing flexibility, scalability, and ease of use because the stack of units operate as a single entity constituting all the ports of the stack members.

High-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet:
Cisco 550XG models in 550X series switches break the barrier of 10 Gigabit Ethernet adoption by providing affordable and flexible configurations customized for the demanding network requirements of small and medium businesses. With 10G copper ports on those switches, you can easily and cost-effectively enable 10G connections to servers and network storage devices with standard RJ45 Ethernet cable. You can also connect the 10G SFP+ fiber ports to 10G uplinks of your access switches, building a high-performance aggregation or core to speed up the overall operation of your network.

High reliability and resiliency:
In a growing business in which availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is critical, you need to assure that employees and customers can always access the data and resources whenever they need. In these environments, stackable switches can play an important role in eliminating downtime and improving network resiliency. For example, if a switch within a Cisco 550X series stack fails, another switch immediately takes over, keeping your network up and running. You can also replace individual devices in the stack without taking your network offline or affecting employee productivity. The Cisco 550X series is designed to deliver hardware redundancy at the lowest incremental cost. Power redundancy is delivered with the Cisco RPS2300 external RPS system. If power to the switch is lost (through loss of AC power or power supply failure), the switch will automatically, and instantaneously, obtain its power from the RPS. This switchover occurs so quickly that there is no loss in traffic or reboot of the device. A Cisco RPS2300 system can be connected to up to six 550X series switches to provide redundancy. Cooling fan redundancy is delivered through preinstalled N+1 configuration. A switch can fully support all its capabilities for the life of the product with only N fans. If one of the fans fails, the spare fan automatically takes over, without causing any downtime. The Cisco 550X series provides an additional layer of resiliency with support for the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP). VRRP lets you extend the same resiliency that stacking provides for individual switches to complete network domains. By running VRRP between two stacks, you can instantly cut over from one stack to another in the event of a problem and continue operating even after a failure.

Advanced stacking:
Some switches claim to support stacking but in practice support only "clustering, " meaning that each switch must still be managed and configured individually. A true stack delivers a unified data and control plane, in addition to management plane, providing flexibility, scalability, and ease of use because the stack of units operates as a single entity constituting all the ports of the stack members. This capability can radically reduce complexity in a growing network environment while improving the resiliency and availability of network applications. True stacking also provides other cost savings and administrative benefits through features such as cross-stack QoS, VLANs, LAGs, and port mirroring, which clustered switches cannot support. Using standard 10G fiber or copper connections, the Cisco 550X series supports both local and horizontal stacking deployments and the flexibility of ring or chain topology. The switches also have the capability to use link aggregation port as the stacking port, providing even higher stacking bandwidth for demanding applications.

Easy deployment and use:
Cisco 550X series switches are designed to be easy to use and manage by small and medium businesses, commercial customers, or the partners that serve them.

Advanced Layer 3 traffic management:
The Cisco 550X series enables a more advanced set of traffic management capabilities to help growing businesses organize their networks more effectively and efficiently. For example, the switches provide static LAN Layer 3 routing, allowing you to segment your network into workgroups and communicate across VLANs without degrading application performance. With these capabilities, you can boost the efficiency of your network by offloading internal traffic-handling tasks from your router and allowing it to manage primarily external traffic and security. Additionally, Cisco 550X models provide dynamic Layer 3 routing features. With these capabilities, you can minimize the need to manually configure routing devices and simplify the ongoing operation of the network.

IPv6 support:
As the IP address scheme evolves to accommodate a growing number of network devices, the Cisco 550X series can support the transition to the next generation of networking and operating systems such as Windows 7, Vista, and Linux. These switches continue to support previous-generation IPv4, allowing you to evolve to the new IPv6 standard at your own pace and helping ensure that your current network will continue to support your business applications in the future. Cisco 550X series switches have successfully completed rigorous IPv6 testing and have received the USGv6 and IPv6 Gold certification.

Networkwide automatic voice deployment:
Using a combination of Cisco Discovery Protocol, LLDP-MED, Auto Smart ports, and Voice Services Discovery Protocol (VSDP, a unique Cisco protocol), customers can deploy an end-to-end voice network dynamically. The switches in the network automatically converge around a single voice VLAN and QoS parameters and then propagate them out to the phones on the ports where they are discovered. For example, automated voice VLAN capabilities let you plug any IP phone (including third-party phones) into your IP telephony network and receive an immediate dial tone. The switch automatically configures the device with the right VLAN and QoS parameters to prioritize voice traffic.

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